By james art 
Thousands of runners are expected to flood the streets of the port city this weekend, as the annual Novant Health Wilmington NC Marathon takes place on Saturday.
Nearly 5,000 runners are expected in the 15th edition of the competition this year, which is a major increase of 4,300, which participated in 2024. The Director of the Competition Michael Clifford attributes the prolonged growth of the largest leg of Wilmington to the years of development and promotion of The event.
“We put a lot of it into it and people will see more of it this year,” says Clifford, founder Wilmington, managing club without restriction. “It’s been my vision for a long time to get to the point where we can start feeding more resources in the race, and that just makes it better.”
5K, Half Marathon and Full Marathon Courses have not changed significantly this year. In 2024, the organizers of competitions made some changes that received positive reviews.
Here’s all you need to know about the Novant Wilmington Novant Wilmington 2025 race course, traffic delay and more.
2025 Wilmington NC Marathon Competition course
The course from point to point will send runners from the beach to the center of Wilmington, while maintaining supplements for fan lovers performed in 2024.
With a start time at 7am, the organizers of the competition urges athletes to arrive at the latest by 6am, as most roads near the start will close shortly thereafter.
Runners can park in the city of Wrightsville Beach Park (requires a walk 1 miles to start), someone to drop them or ride a racing bus from the city center.
Starting from Johnny Mercer at the beach of the Wrightsville, the runners in the marathon, the semi -Marathon and relay competitions will be by Eastwood Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Parway, the Hane Road Castle and Macray Street in the center of Wilmington. For the Marathon participants, the loop around Greenfield brings them back to Front Street.
In 2024, the organizers presented a new part of the route that sent runners to the railway to the corridor on the northern part of Wilmington, which used the Wilmington passenger railway service for just over one mile to reach the 3rd street.
The route returns to 2025 after the competition organizers received extremely positive reviews.
“It was the favorite part of everyone’s race,” said Clifford. “It’s just an area that people just don’t go, so it’s fun to manage something new in the city we’ve never done before.”
Running 5K and 1 miles will start and finish the city center. All finalists cross the line into the Live Oak Bank pavilion.
How cold will it be in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday?
Winter weather conditions are expected to influence the greater part of North Carolina this week. On Tuesday, governor Josh Stein declared a state of emergency.
While competitors can expect to start Saturday in the low to the mid-20s, current forecasts forecast nearly 50 degrees. The heating tents will be created at the beginning of the race to keep athletes and volunteers warm.
“This is the perfect day for a marathon,” said Clifford, which he himself runs dozens of marathon. “I would take this forecast every day that I will conduct a marathon. When you have a long race like this, the body heats up a lot. To be able to adjust your temperature by peeling off, it is a nice amazing thing when you run half or full marathon.”
Wilmington, NC Traffic this week
The longevity of the movement will be in place all morning and in the early afternoon, with the most closure in the center of Wilmington.
Here is a list of the closure of the road and the Satruday lane.
- South in front between the 3rd and red cross streets
- Red Cross St between the front and water streets
- Water between the streets of the Red Cross and Walnut
- Northern lane of water between Walnut & Chestnut streets
- Water between the streets of brown and princess
- Princess between front and water streets (access to the parking lot of Water Street is through a princess and front streets (controlled)
- Front to south between the streets Princess and Dawson
- Front to south between the 3rd and Dawson streets (crossed streets of a nun, Anne, Orange, Doc, Market, Princess Kesta, Grace, Walnut, Hanover, Brunswick, Harnet and Cowan will open for car trafficking with controlled crucies from the police department of Wilmington and the Volunteers of Event)